A new novel by Algerian author who is living in France, Boualem Sansal, was issued recently in France by Gallimard Publish House. Many French critics expects this latest book will give Sansal the right acknowledgement he has not received so far since moving to Paris, reported the September 4 edition of <i>Al-Khabar</i> daily.

The new novel, like the former works of Boualem, breaks many taboos of the Algerian society and criticizes many of its norms and traditions.

The new 272-page book tells the story of Lamia, a modern woman in its fifth month of pregnancy, working as a veterinary, who lives with her brother in the Algerian capital. One day, Lamia is surprised by a female teenager, called Sharifa, knocking on her door after running away from her home.

It should be mentioned that 50 year old Boualem Sansal was forced to leave Algeria after he published his first novel "Le serment des barbares" at the end of the 1990s. He moved to France where he published two additional novels, which did not gain success in France.